Women report experiencing more pain than men, according to a major new global study published in Nature Medicine. This finding was consistent across all types of pain measured by researchers and for all 11 bodily sites examined, including the head, face, neck, shoulder, back, and abdomen.
The research, which involved data from over 6 million people aged five to over 100 across 118 countries from 1990 to 2025, represents one of the largest efforts in pain epidemiology to date. It investigated how pain, a leading global cause of disability, is distributed worldwide and throughout the human lifespan.
The study found that for both men and women, the most significant increase in pain occurred before the age of 55, with pain peaking at or beyond 75. Back, hip, and knee pain were observed to increase across the entire lifespan. The authors noted that a substantial portion of lifetime pain burden develops during working-age adulthood.
High-intensity pain generally peaked around age 50, while generalised pain peaked around 70. The study also identified that 18.3% of the global pain burden was attributable to factors such as smoking, obesity, and low household incomes.